Medical information on the web has pros and cons
By Christian Vey
Jan 2, 2012
You feel a twinge in your stomach and there is no
obvious explanation. Or maybe, for no apparent
reason, you get a stabbing headache. To whom - or to
what - do you turn first? According to various studies,
there is a good chance it is the internet.
'About 65 per cent of respondents now state that they
have recently searched for health content on the
internet,' said Marie-Luise Dierks, co-director of the
Hanover Patients' University, an independent
education institution at Hanover Medical School in
Germany. Some, though by no means all of them, try
to diagnose themselves.
Independently researching a health-related matter on
the internet can indeed be useful, said Dierks, who
said it is a good way to boost one's self-reliance and
confidence in dealing with illnesses, doctors and
medicine. But she added a caveat: 'It's important,
however, that information from the web always be
called into question.'
Health care professionals are divided on the internet
as a source of medical information.
'There is nothing wrong with informing oneself,' said
Ursula Marschall, medical director of a German public
health insurance company. But she said it is
dangerous to regard the internet as more credible than
one's doctor. Noting that 'patients always have their
own notions about their illness,' she said those who
did internet research were at risk of latching onto
information that supports their preconceptions, even if
these latter ones are completely wrong.
Maria Gropalis, a psychologist at Mainz University's
Department of Psychology, also sees risks. 'The
danger of misinformation is very high on the internet.
The overabundance of information can be a problem
as well' - particularly for hypochondriacs, she said.
'There's the risk that the internet will intensify existing
fears.'
A word has even been coined for unfounded anxiety
concerning the state of one's health brought on by
visiting medical websites: 'cyberchondria.' While
Gropalis views the neologism as mainly a vogue word,
she said the phenomenon it described was definitely a
modern variety of hypochondria.
www.monstersandcritics.com/news/health/news/article1683515.php/Medical-information-on-the-web-has-pros-and-cons. Adaptado.
No trecho do sexto parágrafo – The overabundance of information can be a problem as well – a expressão as well corresponde, em português, a
